Well, paint me red and call me a girl scout, I totally did not see this one coming at all. This is so utterly surprising it made my brain explode. Hold on to your panties, because this will rock your world. After pressuring several smaller Android vendors into submission (and yes, HTC is still relatively small compared to other players), Microsoft is now moving on to the big one: Redmond is demanding $15 for every Samsung Android device sold. Samsung's choices are simple: pay up, or face another epic lawsuit.

Thom's claims about when software patents were first granted are completely wrong, but he refuses to admit it. Just a few examples that prove he is wrong:

- The first known software patent was granted in Britain on August 17, 1967 entitled "A Computer Arranged for the Automatic Solution of Linear Programming Problems"

- On November 20th, 1972, in Gottschalk v. Benson, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled a software patent application was invalid because of prior art dating to the 19th century. However, in its ruling, it specifically stated it was only ruling against that particular patent, and NOT software patents in general. "it is said that the decision precludes a patent for any program servicing a computer. We do not so hold."

- On May 26th, 1981, the first known U.S. software patent was granted to Satya Pal Asija for a natural language interface program.